Yep, my mind was blown. Not in a good way, though. Everything that I did on the front end was a total bust. Nothing worked like I was thinking it should. Trip started out bad and went to horrible quickly.
First, I dropped the camp trailer on my foot before I ever got it loaded. Not a good start. Second, I had the muffler on my tow rig blow out at the muffler. I really did not know why the truck was getting louder on the way up to Moab. I just chalked it up to working the motor a little harder than usual. Next was when I drove the rig to the RME run on Greenday. I got the shocks charged (thanks Steve) and we were noticing that the drivers front shock was making contact with the steering shaft. Funny, I thought as it never did in the shop, but maybe the trail was doing things that I could not replicate in the shop. Next the frame ripped where the track bar bracket was. It was later found that I did not brace it nearly enough. I also had more than one person tell me that my upper links should have been run inside the frame rails instead of outside. I can't remember the two fellas names that did an excellent job of a trail fix. Sorry gentlemen, I suck at remembering names. Both were construction workers and one had a killer Ramcharger buggy, red in color. Next, I had a few broken studs on the front axle. While I was trying to drive them out I broke my left thumb. I hit it hard enough that the hub also broke. My thumb was between the hub and the 4 lb hammer I was swinging. Then I ended up breaking a 1/2" drive, 3/4" socket I was using to install the lug nuts on the new studs. I could not find any humor in the fact that I was breaking the tools that I was using to fix the broken parts. While I was trying to get to the Poison Spider trail head I noticed a funny bounce to the drivers front tire and the steering was not as good as I remembered it. 50 yards after the parking lot I heard a snap. That would be one of the bolts stripping the threads out of the box. One and a half hours later I was able to limp the Beater back to camp. This would end my wheeling, never actually have gotten to wheel a trail. Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to load the Beater back onto the trailer. 20 feet from the trailer the steering box, that was hanging on by three bolts, broke all the rest of the way from the frame. Turns out I could not even get the broken rig on the trailer correctly. I smashed my right thumb in the winch and had a heck of a time even getting the sucker on the trailer.
The trip sucked as far as my wheeling went. I never got out on the trail in my own rig. Broke my exhaust on the tow rig, broke my left thumb, smashed my right thumb, dropped the camper on my right foot, broke my front suspension, and steering on the Beater, and in general have never had a worse trip. The only bright spot on the trip was meeting folks and re-newing some old friendships. I can't thank those who put up with me while I was trying to keep a somewhat positive attitude.
LT.
